The municipality of Pullach has won a legal dispute over the admissibility of a citizens’ initiative against the conversion and expansion plans of the chemical company United Initiators (UI). The administrative court in Munich not only shares the view of the municipality that the citizens’ petition made by opponents of the project is to be classified as inadmissible. The justification for the decision is equivalent to a slap for the initiators and their legal counsel.
Even with a benevolent interpretation, the citizens’ petition does not meet the minimum requirements that are to be placed on a permissible citizens’ petition in the case of a constitutional interpretation of the provisions, writes the court. The holiday committee of the community made the right decision in its meeting in August when it submitted the citizens’ petition to “stop land use planning on Dr.-Gustav-Adolph-Str.” The court writes that I have rejected it as inadmissible because of false and misleading reasons on the signature sheet.
The consequences of this court decision for the community and the company are not clear at the moment, and there are still many question marks in this increasingly complicated situation. Especially after the decision made by UI Managing Director Andreasutsch at the end of September to put the plans on hold.
Did the ongoing raw materials and energy crisis play a significant role in this decision? What is the chemical company planning instead at its site? What is the value of the fundamental decisions and the urban planning contract that the company and the municipality have signed? It was agreed that the municipality would be given space on the company premises for a recycling center, an energy center for the municipal geothermal company IEP and for the Isartaler Tisch.
“We have to sort ourselves out,” said United Initiators
“We don’t have a plan B yet,” said UI plant manager Iris Nagl a few weeks ago at a regulars’ table of the SPD in Pullach. “We have to sort ourselves out,” she said on Wednesday after the court decision was announced, and internal talks about it will take place in the coming week. UI’s plans have been put on hold, but not off the table, said municipal councilor Andreas Most (Pullach plus), who played a key role in negotiating the urban development contract. At the next municipal council meeting on November 22, the new situation will be discussed publicly and UI will also be spoken to. According to Mayor Susanna Millennium (Greens), it should also be decided whether one wants to stick to a council request. If no vote is taken on a citizens’ request, such a thing is unnecessary, she told the SZ on Wednesday.
As is well known, the municipal council had voted in favor of the citizens’ petition despite considerable legal concerns and wanted to counter this with a council petition. But then the citizens’ initiative complained against this council request, whereupon the municipal council collected its approval for the citizens’ petition again and again took the citizens’ initiative to court. Their lawyer Maximilian Stanglmeier was absolutely convinced that this withdrawal was “blatant nonsense” and void. The citizens’ initiative can lodge a complaint with the Bavarian Administrative Court (VGH) within two weeks against the contrary decision of the administrative court. The court based its decision on one point of the disputed justification of the citizens’ request, namely on the finding that the town planning contract was not published. At the time, this was correct, explains Stanglmeier. A complaint before the VGH is in preparation.